Mountaineering in the Tien Shan: an Historical Survey
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DIMITRI BOTCHKOV Mountaineering in the Tien Shan: An Historical Survey (Plates 5-9, 18-20) Early exploration The Tien Shan has long been known to the Chinese as the high mountain region thatborders the Taklamakhan desert to the north. Yet as recently as 150 years ago, the only available information about the range consisted of semi-mythological stories told by travellers: by Buddhist pilgrims, and by Chinese, Tartar and Russian dealers and officials. For example, the Buddhist pilgrim Suan-Tsan, who in the seventh century walked from China to Issyk Kul across the passes of the range, was strongly impressed by the glaciers and summits ofthe Central Tien Shan: The snows accumulated here since the beginning of the world have turned to ice blocks that melt neither in spring nor in summer. Smooth fields of solid and brilliant ice extend infinitely, with high ice walls overhanging on both sides. Cold winds blow strongly, and travellers frequently fall prey to dragons. Those following this way should not wear red clothes nor speak loudly. Those who ignore this precaution may suffer many evils. It is difficult to avoid death here. His words were no exaggeration: during the trip thirteen of his fellow travellers lost their lives. Europeans have known of the Tien Shan from the stories of merchants transporting their goods along the Great Silk Road. However, a systematic study of the range was only initiated in the mid-19th century, after the Central Asian territories had been attached to Russia. A key role in the study was played by the Russian Geographical Society and, in particular, by the Russian geographer Petr Semenov. His journeys of 1856 and 1857 helped geographers to answer many challenging questions, since nobody had previously believed that glaciers existed in this mountain region. By virtue of his discovery of a large glacier flowing down the northern slopes of the Sarydzhas ridge, Semenov remedied this fallacy, and became the first European to see the Khan Tengri massif, which he described when viewed from the Kok-Dzhar Pass on the Terskey ridge: 26 MOUNTAINEERING IN THE TIEN SHAN 27 We were all blinded by a surprising view. Directly to the south there was the greatest mountain ridge we had ever seen. It consisted entirely of snow giants which, to my left and right, I could number no less than thirty. All this ridge, together with inter-summit gaps, was covered by an unbroken permafrost snow blanket. Just in the middle of these giants there was a separate high, snow-white, sharp pyramid that, from the elevation ofthe col, seemed at least double the height ofthe other summits. Semenov had wrongly concluded that the snow-white pyramid before him was the legendary Khan Tengri, an error which was not actually corrected until recently. His confusion, however, was perfectly understandable: the local people would undoubtedly have told him of a dominant peak known as 'Khan Tengri', or 'Lord of the Skies'. Moreover, from this viewpoint, Semenov would not have been able to see the 7439m mass of nearby Pobeda. What Semenov did not know, however, was that from ancient times the name 'Khan Tengri' had referred to the highest mountain in the Kokshaal ridge, the whole of which was hidden from him. In addition, the Kyrgyz' epic poem 'The Manas' tells us that Khan Tengri is located at the head of the-Temil'su ~Iron} river, which-is-fed-by-the-Temirsu glacier._This glaciel' flows out from the southern slopes of Pik Pobeda, which dominates the Chinese side of the Kokshaal Ridge - all of which strongly suggests that the correct name for the 7439m peak is, in fact, 'Khan Tengri'. Further proof of this is the fact that the mountain we now call 'Khan Tengri' was always called 'Kan Too' by the Kyrgyz tribes inhabiting the range. In Kyrgyz, this means 'Bloody Mountain', a clear reference to the appearance of this great pyramid of white marble in the evening. Illuminated by the setting sun, it looks like a bloody blade imbedded in the dark blue sky. Thirty years after Semenov's exploration, in 1886, the Russian Geographical Society sent another expedition to the Khan Tengri massif. This was headed by Ivan Ignatiev who studied the glacier discovered by Semenov more thoroughly and named it after him. At the same time he estimated the height of Khan Tengri to be 7320m. He descended along the valley of the river Sarydzhas, crossed the Sarydzhas ridge and discovered the valley of the Inylchek river. Travelling up the valley, Ignatiev eventually reached the Inylchek glacier, estimating its length as 12km, completely unaware that he had discovered the longest glacier in the world, its true length being over 70kms. In 1902 Gottfried Merzbacher, a Munich geographer worked in the Khan Tengri region. l The expedition was supported by the Russian Geographical Society and consisted of scientists, experienced alpinists, local guides and numerous porters. The expedition was well equipped and employed both pack and riding horses, their main purpose being the study of the region's physical relief, the determination of the exact position ofKhan Tengri, and verification of the widely accepted view that this Tien Shan summit was the centre of the entire mountain system. 28 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2000 The expedition failed in its efforts, so the following year Merzbacher returned. Advancing a mere 6-8km a day over the tortuous glacial terrain, he finally discovered that the Inylchek glacier divided into two branches. From the meadow at the glacier junction, Merzbacher saw for the first time the stunning glacial lake which today bears his name. He went on to discover that Khan Tengri stood on the ridge separating the northern and southern branches of the glacier. On the basis of this new information, Merzbacher and his group proceeded for a further 15km, at which point he and two guides continued alone, not without difficulty, until all three eventually stood at the foot of the peak. Khan Tengri Almost 30 years later Merzbacher's discoveries were put to good use when Khan Tengri was climbed for the first time. Mikhail Pogrebetski had succeeded in arousing the interest of the Ukranian Academy of Sciences, and in 1931 he came to the Inylchek glacier as the head of a large and well equipped expedition. In addition to scientific work, the group had arrived with the purpose of climbing Khan Tengri, which they successfully did by ascending the now notorious Semenovskogo Glacier to the West Col, from where they followed the West Ridge to the summit. This now constitutes the normal route from the south side, although because of the dangers of the glacier, many teams prefer to reach the West Col by ascending the North Ridge of Pik Chapaev from a base on the North Inylchek glacier. In 1936, the second and third ascents of Khan Tengri were made by the Pogrebetski route. On 24 August, Kazakh alpinists Evgenii Kolokolnikov, Leonid Kibardin and Ivan Tyutyunikov climbed to the summit, whilst on 5 September an ascent was made by the brothers Evgenii and Vitalii Abalakov, Leonid Gutman, Mikhail Dadiomov and Lentz Saladin. During the descent, Saladin got frostbite and died, thus becoming the first in a long list of victims amongst those who dared to penetrate into the heart of the Tien Shan, or 'Celestial Mountains'. With Khan Tengri 'conquered', alpinists turned their attention to the other mountains in the region. In 1937, Kazakh alpinists climbed the 6371m Chapaev, and in the same year, Moscow alpinists Leonid Gutman, Evgenii Ivanov and Aleksander Sidorenko made an ascent of a nameless peak at head of the Zvezdochka glacier. This summit, subsequently identified as Pic Pobeda (7439m), is distinctly seen in the photo-panorama given by Merzbacher to the Russian Geographical Society in 1903. However, rather than a summit, it is an enormous rock-ice wall, approximately 25km long. Participants in all the expeditions to this region had noted that the peak might be comparable in height to Khan Tengri itself, but nobody hazarded a guess that it might exceed it. The charm of the marble pyramid of Khan Tengri was too powerful. MOUNTAINEERING IN THE TIEN SHAN 29 Pobeda The outbreak of the Second World War meant that mountaineering was temporarily forgotten, despite which, at the height of the war in 1943, an expedition of military topographers set to work at the head of the Inylchek glacier. They obtained an unexpected result of great significance for post war Soviet mountaineering: Khan Tengri was found not to be the highest summit in the Tien Shan; I5km to the south, at the head of Zvezdochka glacier, stood a summit 7439m in height. In 1946 this peak was called 'Pobeda', Russian for 'victory'. In the early post-war years Pobeda was, understandably, the main goal of alpinists. In 1938 the first ascent of the previous year was put to into doubt. It was suspected that Leonid Gutman and his colleagues had not reached the summit, and although the climbers themselves objected, this was not vigorously, for they had made the ascent in conditions of low visibility. Thus it was that at the end of July 1955, two expeditions arrived at the Zvezdochka glacier as participants in the annual mountaineering championships ofthe Soviet Union's Ministry of Sports. These were military expeditions from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, headed by Colonel Ratsek andEv-8enii Kolokolnikov, respectiy:ely._The_alpinistsjn_hoth groups were__ quite sure that once on the summit, they would be considered the first climbers to reach the Victory Peak, a feat which would almost certainly guarantee the top award in the championship. The Uzbek alpinists decided to climb the North Ridge, while the Kazakh alpinists went for the long, but avalanche-safe East Ridge.